While audio mono, multi-channel and stereo tape recorders (analog and digital) with recording and playback functions have been employed for decades in many settings, including fixed and portable versions, the conventional tape deck systems available for automobiles have been restricted to playback functions for the listening entertainment of the operator and other passengers. This operator-passive listening mode has extended, also, to FM and AM radio reception, though operator-active speaking from the vehicle has, within the past decade, become customary through the use of a separate cellular radio telephone transmitter-receiver also provided in the vehicle, but at a different location than the tape deck-radio receiver.
There are, however, serious restraints upon operator-active functions during vehicle movement that do not exist in the usual fixed or portable tape recorder settings, in view of the necessity that the operator give substantially total attention to driving and minimal or insignificant operational attention to the tape deck. It is to the problem of enabling such minimal diversion of the operator's attention while expanding the functionality of the tape deck to permit the operator to dictate and record and/or automatically transmit the dictation via the vehicle cellular radio, either in real time or by playback, that the present invention is primarily directed. Adding such facility to the vehicle-installed tape deck with safe and minimal attention diversion from the driving function obviates the current need for separate tape recorders to be carried by the operator or vehicle. And it also achieves the very desirable result of (1) enabling operator-active dictation for local storage while driving, and subsequent playback; (2) for real time automatic relay to remote stations, such as the operator or another's office, home, or message center or the like; and/or (3) for subsequent playback and automatic transmission to remote stations at desired times. With the incorporation of the features of the invention, furthermore, it also fortuitously becomes possible to enable recording of the AM-FM radio broadcast reception at the vehicle, if desired, and either real-time transmittal of the same to a remote location via the vehicle cellular radio telephone and/or the subsequent transmission by playback of the broadcast recorded by the tape deck.